


Chicken

by breeeliss



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Making Out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-08-25
Packaged: 2018-08-11 01:34:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7870375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breeeliss/pseuds/breeeliss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The game is simple enough. Whoever chickens out first loses. And Ladybug is never in the habit of chickening out. Or backing down from a challenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chicken

“Up for a bit of a game, Ladybug?”

Ladybug was sitting against one of the arches just outside of the Notre Dame doing yoyo tricks as she stared at Chat Noir sitting across from her. “If this is another game of whose puns are better, I’d rather go out into the thunderstorm. Lightning and all.”

“You know, not only is that offensive because of your horrifying lack of appreciation for my jokes, but also because we literally almost got hit by lightning ten minutes ago.” Chat Noir pointed out into the downpour coming down right outside the arch they were camping out in right when another large and loud strike of lightning cracked across the sky, as if to further emphasize his point. 

They were in the middle of their patrol that night when the cloudy skies brought drizzle, which brought rain, which brought heavy rain, which brought a downpour complete with deafening thunder and lightning that was illuminating the entire sky. Suffice it to say that they decided staying on the rooftops was probably an extremely bad idea, so they took cover in Notre Dame, deciding that waiting out the rain was better than detransforming and finding their way back in their civilian forms. 

They managed to last fifteen minutes with Ladybug messing with her yoyo and Chat Noir whistling every Christmas jingle he knew before he cracked. She supposed she had to at least give him credit for lasting that long. She leaned forward to flick at the little golden bell around his neck. “I’m not the one scared of rain,” she teased. 

He grabbed her finger before she pulled her hand away and held it to his chest. “I’m sorry, I sort of recall that insects can’t fly in the rain either,” he smirked. 

She rolled her eyes at him and pulled her hand away before swiping him across the nose. “Details….”

“Look, I’m just saying,” Chat Noir began. “If we’re going to be taking cover from the rain until this lets up, which doesn’t look like it’ll be anytime soon, we might as well make it fun.”

“Oh, I’m not denying that point,” Ladybug responded, crossing her arms and smiling at him playfully. “I just think that you and I have different definitions of the word ‘fun.’”

“You haven’t even heard the game yet!”

Ladybug turned her chin up at him. “Knowing you it’s going to be something I don’t want play.”

Chat Noir pouted and let his tail swish back and forth to make himself look less threatening. “At least hear it….”

Ladybug eyed him suspiciously and turned to look the storm outside again. It looked like it was only getting worse, and it was coming down so hard she could barely see more than a few yards out in front of her. The two of them were quickly getting bored, and it’s not like it was any fun to just sit here and do nothing. She rubbed her temples, convinced herself that she was going to regret this decision, and sighed. “Fine. What game do you want to play?”

Chat Noir grinned widely. “Ever heard of a friendly little game called Chicken?”

Ladybug’s face fell, and she immediately got up and turned around in the opposite direction. “ _ No _ .”

“Haha, so you’ve heard of it!” Chat Noir cackled, chasing after her when she started walking further into the church and ducking around the columns that were dotting the walkway. “I’ve seen a few people at school playing it for fun, but I’ve never actually played it myself before. Apparently, you sit in front of another person and lean in towards each other like you’re about to kiss until one person chickens out and backs away.” He chuckled to himself. “Fascinating…”

Ladybug turned to him and smirked. “You just want to get the chance to try and put a move on me.”

“Technically, that’ll only happen if you don’t chicken out,” he pointed out. “Which you probably will, and then we’ll just have a good laugh about it.”

Ladybug frowned at the snub. “...you think I’ll chicken out?”

Chat Noir shrugged and swung around one of the columns. “I mean, it’s not a commentary on your bravery. I can barely tuck a flower into your hair without you slipping away. So yeah. I think you’ll chicken out.”

Ladybug licked her lips and swung around the same column until she was face to face with him. “And what? You don’t think  _ you’ll _ chicken out?”

He blinked at her for a moment before sobering up and placing a hand across his heart. “You doubt me?”

Ladybug shrugged. “I think we’ve already ascertained that I’m better than you.”

He raised a brow playfully. “Wanna bet?”

He didn’t give Ladybug a chance to respond before he jumped off the column, sauntered over to the bannister, and jumped on top of it. “Let’s test it and see.”

Chat Noir was turned around and facing her while she stared up at him incredulously. “Doesn’t Chicken usually involve kissing?”

“It also usually involves two people of the same gender,” he joked. “Although, if you would  _ like _ to throw the kissing in there I wouldn’t be — ”

“Quit while you’re ahead, kitty cat.”

“Fair enough.” Chat Noir pulled his baton out of his belt and held his hands out wide. “In that case, I’ll start off easy.” He gave her a little mock salute before he leaned backward and fell right off the bannister. 

Ladybug’s eyes widened. “Chat!!” She ran to the banister and looked down to see him plummeting headfirst toward the aisle below with no attempts to extend his staff or even twist his body to break his fall. She was biting on her lip nervously and was about to jump down and grab him before he extended his staff at the last second to stretch across two of the church pews to make a little bridge. He twisted his body around and landed both of his feet on his staff, safe and sound and hundreds of feet below where they were previously standing. Chat stood up straight, did a little bow, and laid out on one of the church pews, staring up at Ladybug. 

“Well. Your turn. Or are you chicken?”

It wasn’t exactly what she had in mind when he’d breached the game to her, but she definitely preferred it. Besides if they were going to be doing aerial dives, then Ladybug had that covered and then some. She wrapped the string of her yoyo around her wrist, hopped up on the bannister, and let herself lean forward until she was falling headfirst towards the first floor. She could barely hear Chat Noir laughing through the wind blowing by her ears and the storm still going on outside, but just when she was about to make impact with the ground, she flung her yoyo back up, let it wrap around the bannister she’d just fell from, and stopped her fall only a foot before she would’ve hit the floor, hanging upside down from her yoyo string. She smirked when she saw Chat Noir slow clapping in front of her. “Is that all?” she teased. 

Chat Noir rolled off of the bench and stood on his feet. He looked around the looming church and smirked. He practically pranced to one of the columns that were along the side of the aisle and jutted his thumb upward. “Run up the column, kick off the clerestory, six backflips, back on the ground.”

Ladybug scoffed and lined herself up in front of the column next to him. “You’re on.”

Chat smirked and backed up until he was standing in the middle of the aisle. “I’ll even give you a running start to be fair.”

“Oh, right, because I need it  _ so _ bad.”

“Just being considerate of my Lady,” he smirked. “First one to quit loses. On the count of three.”

Ladybug waited for Chat Noir to count them both up before they sprinted for the column, jumped up, and continued up the column to the clerestory near the top. She had to admit, she almost didn’t make it and she was sure that Chat Noir was having an easier time of it because he had the stronger legs, but they both kicked off the clerestory at exactly the same time, and Ladybug was at least pleased to note that even though they both did their backflips, she stuck her landing a little better than he did. 

One of her pigtails had fallen out from the effort, so she looked around the church while she fixed her hair. She eyed the bannister that Chat Noir was just balancing on. “In the mood for some power crunches?”

They hooked their legs onto the bannister that they’d dived off of before, leaned backwards until their upper bodies were dangling precariously above the pews on the ground floor, and proceeded through an impressive twenty minute crunch competition with Chat Noir chickening out right when Ladybug thought her abs were going to catch fire. Feeling rather put off that he lost, he extended his staff, perched it up above their heads in between two of the columns, and proposed a pull up contest. Ladybug put a valiant effort before her biceps started shaking and her grip started loosening and she was forced to jump down to the ground and chicken out, something that she was sure Chat was going to brag about for the next couple of days. 

The storm kept raging on outside and for the next hour Ladybug and Chat Noir were doing triple barrel rolls off of the upper walkways, backflipping until someone dropped from exhaustion, doing wall sits from gym class until someone surrendered, finding new ways to make push-ups needlessly difficult, seeing who could hold their leg behind their head the longest and, when they really got tired, even resorting to seeing who could hold their breath the longest. By the time they had completely exhausted themselves, they were sitting cross legged in front of each other on the upper stories, and going through their fifth round of a staring contest which inevitably led to them filling the church with their raucous laughter and the sound of rain and thunder outside. 

Chat Noir was brushing his fingers through his hair and slicking his hair back away from his face, still slightly damp from the sweat they worked up before. “I’m telling you, I won that one.”

“No, because you’re not allowed to tickle people to get them to laugh to win a staring contest,” she frowned. 

“Um, I don’t recall us making that rule.”

“That’s  _ always _ a rule. It’s an automatic rule for staring contests.”

“But there are no such rules in chicken. Only that there can be but one winner and one chicken.”

Ladybug pouted and kicked him in the shin. “You’re a cheater.”

Chat Noir was laughing brightly and leaning forward to try and get a look at her face that she was purposefully turning away from him. “Oh come on, hey. I’m sorry, alright? I didn’t mean to offend, my Lady.”

She crossed her arms and made a show of looking put off and huffy. “I am  _ quite _ offended.”

He smirked. “Oh dear, are my apologies not enough?”

“No they’re not,” Ladybug said sternly, trying and failing to force back the smile that was ruining. “You’ll have to do better than that.”

“What about my eternal servitude?” he said with a damning smirk. 

“Eternal, huh?” she grinned back at him. “That’s quite a lofty promise to little old me.”

Chat shrugged. “Not really….”

He said it a little too sincerely — his usual flirty, charming, obnoxious tone of voice noticeably absent and making him sound far more honest than Ladybug was ever used to hearing. It made her pause for a moment and stare at him strangely, but she tried to pick the mood back up again. “I expect an apology with a little bit more effort,” she teased. 

“Geez, you really know how to make a man asphyxiate with guilt, don’t you?”

She winked at him. “What proper lady doesn’t?”

Chat Noir was silly and exhausting and obnoxious and just a little bit too ostentatious for her tastes. Ladybug wouldn’t have traded him for anyone else in the world though, because he was loyal and honest and brave and damn good at his job — so much so that she always feared the moment she would have to handle an enemy without him because she really didn’t think she could. But when they were like this, out of battle and just joking around like they always tended to do, Ladybug found it incredibly easy to deal with Chat Noir’s strong personality by teasing him back — fighting fire with fire so to speak. It wasn’t flirting and it wasn’t foreplay. It was just how the two of them spoke to one another and how the two of them got along so well. It was easier that way. 

It was the moments where Chat Noir started to sound less like Chat Noir and more like himself — the more sincere and more vulnerable boy that was probably hiding underneath that mask, the one that didn’t have the comfort of anonymity in order to hide his feelings and his nerves — that Ladybug often found herself not knowing what to say or how to act. Because you couldn’t fool around and tease someone back after that. 

Chat Noir grabbed her hand and stared at her with a level of sincerity she wasn’t expecting to come out of such a simple little game. “I didn’t mean to upset, Ladybug. You know that it’s against my very nature to ever do anything that would disappoint you. Can you forgive this silly little cat?”

He kissed the back of her palm, and let his lips linger a little longer than he usually did. Normally, this was the moment when Ladybug pulled her hand back, flicked him on the nose, and called him a cheesy charmer. They’d laugh about it, and go on business as usual. But he just looked so different to her all of a sudden. His eyes looked vulnerable and filled with something else other than his minor apology, he was chewing on the inside of his cheek like he was nervous, his cheeks were flushed — by exertion or embarrassment, she wasn’t sure — and his hair was pushed back, making him look a little softer, a little smaller. 

Ladybug’s hand was still tingling where he left the kiss, and she was staring him straight in the eyes, purposefully not pulling her hand away once she realized that she didn’t really want to. This didn’t feel like he was needlessly flirting with her — this felt genuine. 

Chat Noir must have noticed her hesitation, because he was furrowing his brows, confused as to why she wasn’t doing anything. As if to test the theory, he flipped her hand over and left a slower, softer kiss right in the middle of her palm. 

For some reason, that made Ladybug gasp softly, and Chat Noir was quick to notice it. Not in a way that left him smirking and teasing her, but in a way that made him equally as shocked and nervous, and just like that the energy between them became tense and filled with something strange that neither of them had ever had to deal with until now. 

Thoughts of Adrien were flitting through Ladybug’s head without her meaning for them to, and she almost felt guilty for letting them crop up. It didn’t seem like it was the right moment, and it felt unfair to the boy sitting on front of her. But little things like Adrien putting his hand on her shoulder or putting his hand over hers made her gasp and made her chest do the little jump that it just did when Chat Noir kissed her. Which was confusing because she knew for a fact she loved Adrien, and that wasn’t going to change. But Chat was….Chat. He annoyed her, he wasn’t supposed to make her chest ache like this. Adrien and Chat were two completely separate people for whom she had two completely separate reactions to. Now she wasn’t so sure. 

Chat Noir pushed it a little further, and pressed a slow, open mouthed kiss on the inside of her wrist that made her skin flush on contact, even through her suit. She inhaled audibly, and let out a shaky sigh, not letting her eyes leave his, and not wanting to screw up the moment. He stopped again, searching her face for something, and she realized suddenly that he was making sure that she wasn’t uncomfortable before he decided to keep going. It was like their game earlier — the moment she said Chicken, she knew that Chat Noir would let it all stop. She believed what he said — he wouldn’t betray her trust like that. 

The question now was did Ladybug  _ want _ him to stop. 

Maybe it was out of curiosity, maybe she just never had a boy kiss her like this and she wanted to see what it felt like, maybe it was because this was Chat and she trusted him like she didn’t trust anyone else and she knew that he wouldn’t make this awful for her, but she licked her lips and nodded at him, a silent signal for him to keep going, that she wasn’t scared. 

Chat Noir gulped in a huge breath when he saw her nod, and he bit his lip for a moment before he leaned down and started pressing kisses up her arm and to the crook of her elbow. He let himself sigh out when he reached the sensitive skin there, and the action made Ladybug shiver in response, but she didn’t push him away and didn’t tell him to stop. So he lavished more kisses there until he made his way up her upper arm, making sure to leave kisses in the middle of each of her spots as he went. 

It was something out of a cheesy romance movie — kissing up a girl’s arm — but Chat Noir was making it seem far less cheesy, far more innocent, and definitely more intense. He was at her shoulder when he stopped, waiting for her to protest again. When nothing came, he turned his head and placed a kiss on her collarbone, which made Ladybug straighten up and gasp out again. 

Chat Noir’s lips were tracing along her collarbone and then started going up her neck. Ladybug let her eyes flutter closed and felt her entire chest flush with warmth at the feel of his hair tickling the underside of her chin, the smell of him right underneath her nose, and the feel of his hand circling her wrist, his claws only gently scraping against her. She was anticipating his next kiss during every little pause in between, waiting for that pleasant little bit of pressure with every kiss he left. 

Then, out of nowhere, his lips touched her bare skin when he placed a kiss on the underside of her jaw. A small noise left her mouth, so small she almost didn’t hear it, but she couldn’t help herself. Because suddenly she was feeling his warm lips, the brush of his nose against her skin, his breath furling out against her cheeks when he moved up to place a kiss there too. And then she realized where his lips were going when she felt him kiss across her cheek and end just before the corner of her mouth. 

Chat stopped for a moment and leaned his forehead against her temple, and it took her a few beats to realize that he was waiting for her to do something. “Are we still playing?” she muttered. 

Ladybug could feel his breath against her cheeks when he spoke. “Do you want to keep playing?”

She almost wanted to say no just because this didn’t feel like a game, and she didn’t want things to get messy, not with Chat. But he was so close to her, and all she had to do was turn her head to see what he’d do next, where he was planning on taking things, what was going through his head. So she did just that — turning her head so that their foreheads were touching and her lips were only a couple of inches away from his. 

Chat let out a breathless laugh that sounded more nervous than amused, something that Ladybug found comforting. But he only paused for a few moments before he wet his lips, tilted his chin up, and kissed her. 

It was different from the time Ladybug kissed Chat Noir to stop the akuma — he was too shocked to respond much at the time, and the desperation made what would have been a rather nice kiss a little clunky with too much pressure and a painful bumping of teeth. But this one was so darn gentle and careful, like Chat was only just touching his lips to hers to give her plenty of breadth to pull away in case she changed her mind, and something about that hesitance and consideration warmed her whole body. Both of his hands were around her wrists now, loose enough for her to jerk away but snugly enough for her to feel the nervous flexing of his fingers. 

That probably could’ve been it and the two of them could’ve walked away without it being strange. But when Chat Noir pulled away Ladybug followed him back and kissed him again, firmer and surer than he had. That seemed to ignite some confidence in him because Chat exhaled shakily and kissed her back. His hands were trailing up her arms and resting on her shoulders while her hands moved up to rest on his thighs. Her nails were digging into the leather of his suit while she pushed up on her knees to roll up closer to him and get a better angle. Ladybug’s body was reacting very much on its own accord and her brain wasn’t supplying any justifications for any of this other than that it felt good, and she was desperately curious to see what would happen next. 

Chat’s hands moved up to cup both of her cheeks and he opened his mouth to lock his lips with hers and  _ oh _ did that feel nice. He had her bottom lip caught between his own and she could suddenly feel the smooth, silky skin on the inside of his lip that made her whole body shiver. Ladybug gasped and slid her lips down so that she could catch his lip in hers and hear him groan softly from the back of his throat. He was tilting his head to press harder and keep their mouths moving, and suddenly a huge reservoir of eagerness that Ladybug didn’t know she had started to shine through because suddenly it felt like they couldn’t reconnect fast enough when their lips separated with small, wet smacks. 

It went from sweet and careful to something else entirely, and suddenly it felt like the two of them were desperately grappling for something that might evaporate if they stopped long enough to let it. Ladybug was gasping and groaning from the back of her throat, and Chat was catching her lips in between his teeth before licking them clean. Ladybug’s hands had slid up until they were on his biceps and her arms curled tightly around his shoulders. She was leaning into him until Chat straightened his legs and oh so carefully pulled her into his lap, letting her knees rest on either side of his hips and letting her press their chests closer together. He had one hand braced on her lower back and had the other resting on her cheek, idly tracing his claws through her hair and making the pigtail come loose on one side.

Ladybug lost count of how long they’d stayed like this, because it felt like time had been suspended. The rain wasn’t stopping, there was no one in the building to disturb them, and it was just the two of them focusing on each other for what could’ve been hours for all Ladybug knew. Some starved, desperate part of her didn’t want it to end, had pushed things like unattainable crushes and second thoughts so far out of her head. 

His lips left hers for a moment to kiss along her jaw again, and Ladybug let her fingers curl into the hair on the back of his head. She swallowed underneath the feel of his teeth on her skin, and her voice came out thoroughly breathless. “I think we forgot something…”

Chat hummed against her. “What’s that?”

“What happens when neither of us chickens out?”

He wasn’t forthcoming with an answer, and instead he lined his lips up against hers again. Her lips were red, just a little swollen, and so sensitive that every minute movement of his head felt like fire between them. “I…” His voice came out hoarse, and he swallowed to clear it. “I didn’t think that far ahead, to be honest.”

She couldn’t help but laugh — it helped release all the mounting pressure in her chest that she didn’t have a name for. Plus, the feel of him chuckling against her mouth was something that was just so pure and felt so nice that Ladybug couldn’t stop herself. 

She tried to find their hands again — one was still draped over his shoulder, and one was still gently scratching his scalp on the back of his head. At some point, both of his hands had settled right on the top of her hips, and his thumbs were drawing absent minded circles against her suit. It still felt like Ladybug was floating, so she spoke honestly without thinking. “I’ve...never kissed anyone like that before.”

The admission made Chat Noir breathe in, and move forward to kiss her once, quickly and gently, before pulling back again. “Neither have I.”

“Really?” Ladybug giggled, not bothering to stop her body’s desire to lean back in for another short kiss. “You always struck me as quite the casanova.”

Chat shook his head and she felt his smile. “You always did have me figured wrong, my Lady.”

Maybe she did, she thought. Because someone as flirty and frustrating as Chat didn’t seem like the kind of person who could make a kiss with her seem honest, nice, intense, and hot at the same time. Didn’t seem like his kisses could burn one moment and feel like light, fresh air the next. 

She slowly opened her eyes and found his bright, green eyes staring back at her, rooting her in place and making the air leave her body in one overwhelming sigh. He didn’t look smug, he didn’t look like he was about to tease her, he didn’t look like he’d finally snatched up a present he’d been waiting impatiently for since the day he met her. He just looked content — smiling at her softly in the way he always did at the end of a long fight, or at the start of a patrol when she finally appeared in front of him, like everything was suddenly right with the world and he didn’t have to worry about much because he had her, and that was all that mattered. 

All the teasing aside, she couldn’t imagine him never looking at her like this again. It would feel like something was missing, something vital. And just like that, something inside of her shifted. Because she took that moment to look at his face, and acknowledged just how handsome he looked in the dim light of the church. She felt his hands on her and sighed at how gentle they felt, how careful he was with her. And she remembered what started this all — he just wanted to spend time with her, just wanted to have a little fun to pass the time, because he loved her company and cherished her as a friend. 

She had him figured all wrong. 

New connections were being made and new considerations were being entertained, and Ladybug would have stayed staring at him like that had he not interrupted her thoughts. “I think the rain’s stopped,” he muttered. “Might be a good time to get you home.”

Ladybug shook her head a little and looked out the windows of the cathedral. It was still wet and unpleasant outside, but the rain had dwindled down to almost nothing, which meant they were clear to travel by rooftop again. She nodded, stood on her feet, and held her hand out to help Chat Noir stand as well. They stood only a few inches away from each other, Ladybug’s nose lined up right with Chat Noir’s collarbone and Chat Noir looking down at the top of her head. She wanted to say something, do something to fill up the space. But Chat Noir was the first to step away from her and pull his baton out from his belt. 

He extended it out the window, ready to pole vault out onto the street below. But he held his hand out and gestured to the window. “Ladies first.”

Ladybug grinned, slid her fingers through his hair again, and tapped him on the underside of his chin as she pulled her yo-yo out. “Thanks for the game, kitty.”

Chat grinned. “Anytime.”

Ladybug filled her chest with too much air and felt lightheaded when she finally swung outside and landed on the next set of roofs in front of them. They were darting back to the other side of the city, Chat Noir running alongside of her the entire time, and she realized at that moment that things were going to be different and stay different from here on out. And maybe that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. 

**Author's Note:**

> Read/like/reblog the story on Tumblr [here](http://breeeliss.tumblr.com/post/149480960089/miraculous-ladybug-chicken)  
> Follow me at breeeliss.tumblr.com


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